Caroline Wawzonek

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, the Public Utilities Board is an independent body, so it is to them that we would be submitting this for their review by technical experts who are independent from NTPC. In addition to which, Mr. Chair, the NTPC is also audited by the Office of the Auditor General and so, again, any expenses incurred and costs incurred, etcetera, will go through that process as well. Thank you.

Yes, Mr. Speaker.

(audio).

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, this is the kind of an infrastructure investment that is unlikely to find a federal funding partner. As such, it would be entirely borne by the Government of the Northwest Territories, which would therefore take away from the funding that we put towards health care centres, long-term care, and education, which are also fully funded by the Government of the Northwest Territories. So at this point, no, there is not a current plan to investigate spending possibly upwards of a $100 million on a standalone facility in Yellowknife for this purpose. Thank you.

Sorry, Mr. Chair. I don't have great ears in this room. So that's the post-construction report, and that is going to be part of the submission that is made for the 2024-2025 GRA that the Public Utilities Board has requested. I believe that is due by the end of December.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, what I would suggest is I can work with MACA to determine if this is a community government need or ECE if this is, in fact, a land resource or permitting need to help identify what, in fact, it is that might be holding up the community of Tsiigehtchic from being able to apply or seek opportunity to access gravel resources. So I'll certainly commit to go and work with my colleagues through Infrastructure and through their offices, figure out where the barriers or bottlenecks might be, and work then directly with the community to see if they can move...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I don't have that detail in front of me. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, not necessarily. So there certainly are, you know, standard periods of time on any piece of infrastructure or equipment that would suggest, you know, an ideal window within which you would replace or repair or renovate and, you know, any sort of deferred maintenance across the entire government spectrum has those built in. But by not doing it, you may be increasing the risk of a future -- increasing the risk that the equipment or the asset can become unused or less useable or less efficient, but that doesn't necessarily guarantee that it is in that situation...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, again, I appreciate the Member's being not only a strong advocate but has actually been an important liaison for information and coordination on this issue going back as early as the winter when we were dealing with winter resupply.

Mr. Speaker, there's a few different things going on. For one, Norman Wells does not have the same fuel resources or (audio) sources. They are supplied by the private sector. Whereas, Deline and Tulita are supplied through the fuel services division of the Department of Infrastructure. There's private sector usage, private sector...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, with respect to the Inuvik facility, it is not my understanding that there was a change to the Act, but rather a challenge with terms of the actual structure of the building itself and challenges in terms of staffing it.

With respect to other facilities that remain underutilized, the Trailcross facility in Fort Smith is also underutilized, and the community is looking at an opportunity to have that rendered as a surplus. So that is also a facility that comes from a correctional background, but the community is actively already engaged in what they can do to...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, it's projects that I believe are generally resulting from a delay in the projects -- sorry, let me start that again.

There was a delay in some of the upgrade projects and knowing that there would be some delays, they were able to reallocate those funding. So, really, all of the projects on these lists are not cancelled, necessarily. It's that there's a recognition that there are things not happening at the pace that they were originally expected to, for a variety of different reasons, but then we're able to take that money and put that towards this area of need...